Chapter 169
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Cracks in the Perfect Family
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Lee Heewon was 62 years old.
Born the daughter of a well-to-do family, she had even graduated from art school back in her day.
In her younger years, she ran a small art academy and managed it quite nicely, but she shut it down the moment she got married.
Introduced by her parents to a man who taught school in Busan, she decided to tie the knot after just half a year.
It was a sort of arranged match, but Lee Heewon had spent those six months in pure romantic bliss.
They exchanged dozens of letters during their long-distance courtship.
She even received a thousand paper cranes, all the rage at the time.
And a diamond ring came with a lavish proposal.
The two lived happily ever after.
Her husband worked diligently at the school, bringing home his paycheck, while she was the picture of a devoted wife and wise mother, tending to the home.
Lee Heewon managed that salary frugally, raised their children, bought a house, and even made decent preparations for retirement.
To onlookers, it was a harmonious family straight out of a painting.
Now their son and daughter were both employed and making their own livings, so there didn't seem to be a worry in the world.
But inside, Lee Heewon was burning up more fiercely with each passing day.
"Let's pick up a hobby. Maybe hiking or golf..."
"Hiking sounds good, doesn't it? But buying too much gear when we don't even know if we'll stick with it..."
It started with a hiking club.
The couple joined a local group together, but ironically, Lee Heewon twisted her ankle on the very first outing.
While she sat out the initial few hikes to recover, her husband kept going to the meetings on his own.
If she hadn't hurt her ankle back then, would any of this have happened?
Or was it all destined to unfold no matter what?
By the time the group announced a two-day, one-night trip to Jirisan Mountain, her ankle had fully healed.
But her husband fretted that she should rest a little longer.
He barked that she'd just slow everyone down if she fell behind.
And he nagged that another injury would break his heart.
With that prior incident hanging over her, a chill unease settled in, but... she didn't want to face it and brushed off her gut feeling.
She ignored it and went about her days until, one day, an unbearable wave of sorrow crashed over her.
She checked the car's black box, and there it was—just as she'd feared.
A woman's voice was recorded.
And when she opened her husband's laptop while he was out and peeked at his PC KakaoTalk...
[Yeobongbong~~~^* Honey, I'm late today... Wife won't let me go^*]
[Whine! Too bad! I'll take the call first!]
[Coming quick...;; Tonight's party night~~~]
It was a total spectacle.
She'd always thought the neck-clutching in dramas was over-the-top, but she truly felt dizzy.
"My stomach's been feeling awful today, so I rushed over. Could you treat me, please~?"
She'd gone there for her ankle treatment, and every time her shoulders knotted up.
Staying alone in the empty house was unbearable, so she hurried to the Korean medicine clinic.
"Thank you. I feel so much better now."
After treatment, she could finally get some food down.
But once her eyes were opened, everything looked suspicious.
He'd suddenly taken up bathhouses—places he'd never gone to before—and stayed out for hours.
Why were his old juniors calling him so often?
Every time her husband came home with wet hair, raving about how much he loved the baths, her hand would tighten involuntarily around the kitchen knife.
"Director, my headache's spiking today~."
The kind director meticulously treated her aches and pains, and she always left feeling great.
"How are you feeling today?"
"Ay, I was fine, but now my chest feels all stuffy again because of my husband..."
Every visit, she ended up complaining that things had gotten worse, which made Lee Heewon feel unnecessarily guilty.
"Sigh, what a cursed fate. What was all that hard work for~? Husband's cheating~ Kids can't even make it home for the holidays~"
And yet, laments kept spilling from her lips.
The director listened so well, and she had no other friends to confide in.
She'd resolve not to today, just sit quietly, but once at the clinic, her guard dropped, and the stories poured out.
So it went: improvement, relapse, improvement, relapse.
The medicine had really helped a lot.
Her heart racing and breath catching had her thinking it was serious, but luckily it was caught early.
"Hmm~ Uhmm~ Hmm~."
But while she was cleaning the house—brushing off her husband's lame excuse about classmates from Seoul visiting—she spotted the gift he'd forgotten to take.
Had it been 100 days with the mistress?
There, under the bed: letters crammed full of writing, a glass jar of paper cranes, and a luxury wallet.
"...Same pattern as thirty years ago?"
It was absurd.
The living room still held the paper cranes her husband had folded for her over thirty years ago, back when they were dating.
The jars were fancier these days, but the contents were all the same.
"When the hell did he even have time for this...? And they sell them pre-made?"
She cracked open one of the letters amid it all.
"Hahaha."
The phrasing was all too familiar.
She'd peek at those old letters every time she did a deep clean.
Back then, her husband—playing the Korean lit teacher—would include poems he'd written and thoughtful, labored-over lines.
Too much hassle now, huh?
Copying phrases from letters to his thirty-something-year-ago self said it all.
"Haha, haha."
Would he come back for the gift?
If so, then... this jar to the head...
Lee Heewon set the jar by the entryway and waited ages, but all that came was a message saying he'd drunk too much with friends and would crash overnight.
She went to the clinic, and the ever-gentle director said something unexpected.
"To truly heal, don't you think we need to eliminate the root of all that anger?"
For a split second, she genuinely thought he meant getting rid of her husband.
She'd been googling hitman prices during physical therapy.
"I'm a perfectly upstanding citizen with zero intention of murder."
"Ah, of course. Just a joke, right? Haha."
"Even if there was some... accident... I'd have nothing to do with it... Oh dear, what am I even saying?"
The more she spoke, the more suspicious she sounded, so Lee Heewon clamped her mouth shut.
Didn't she sound just like someone caught mid-serious murder plot?
She'd only thought about it, really!
"Have you ever considered divorce? Your relationship with your spouse is wreaking havoc on your health. He's barely a spouse at this point."
"You're right. He's no husband—just a straight-up enemy now."
The director broached divorce with utmost care.
She'd ranted about her husband plenty before, so it wasn't all that shocking.
"The second time, I thought about it seriously and even consulted a lawyer~. Should've done it then, but now... what's the point..."
But Lee Heewon had no real plans to divorce.
Wasn't everything just too late for that?
Her entire life had been poured into being that man's wife—what would be left if even that was gone?
"It's a 100-year lifespan these days. You've got another 40 years ahead. Wouldn't it be better to grieve once, big and hard, and start a new life instead of suffering the same torment? ...You might even think in ten years, 'Should've done it back then.'"
"You think?"
"What do the rest of the family say? You mentioned two kids?"
"Sigh, the kids don't know~. They're swamped with work—what good would telling them do?"
"Try talking to them. Say your daughter's married and her husband hid an affair..."
"She should smash every dish in the house right then!"
Lee Heewon shouted before she knew it.
"Ahem."
"Yes. Your son and daughter would say the same."
"Ah..."
"Kids know who was faithful to the family and what's right or wrong."
She pondered for a moment.
"But if I become a 'divorced family,' it'll be a black mark on the kids' marriages~."
Director Hwang shook his head.
"The kids won't see it that way. One of my patients is a lawyer, and apparently kids often drag their parents in for twilight divorces these days."
Lee Heewon had heard such tales.
The term popped up on the news all the time.
- Divorce at our age? Ridiculous. Once married, you take responsibility for the family for life!
She recalled her husband saying that while they watched TV together once.
He'd promised to take responsibility no matter what... but he'd never imagined his wife leaving first.
"I'll think about it."
That thought only fueled her anger more.
"If there's any way I can help, just say the word. Make the choice that's right for you."
"Yes, thank you."
She usually left treatment feeling refreshed.
Today, she felt far more distraught than when she'd arrived.
Dragging her heavy body home, her husband was nowhere to be seen.
And the gifts she'd left out by the entryway were gone.
Before, he'd at least apologized when caught.
Now, not even an excuse.
"......"
All the affection she'd forced herself to cling to fell away.
The option she'd buried deep in her heart came into sharp focus.
A little while later.
"Good thing she decided to divorce. She hired a lawyer right after they rejected the mutual agreement—looks like it'll go smoothly."
"Oh, once she sets her mind to something, she's all in."
Hwang Sanghun shared the patient's update.
Ever since that first chat about getting involved in her personal life, he'd kept me posted whenever things shifted.
The patient was dead set on turning her life around, and with Hwang Sanghun pitching in, everything seemed to be progressing nicely.
"Hope she thrives after the divorce."
Hwang Sanghun said it with real gravity.
"Getting sentimental? This one's gotten under your skin?"
"Huh, did I?"
"Yeah... ? You two gotten close?"
He did care deeply for all his patients, but honestly, he'd invested a bit too much here.
A word or two would've sufficed—or even nothing at all—but he'd agonized over it plenty.
"Yeah."
Hwang Sanghun blinked, as if only just realizing it himself.
"Well, every doctor has those patients who stick with you."
Humans click with certain personalities, and a compelling story tugs at the heart.
Would it have gotten to me? Complex family dramas were rare at our clinic.
Patients who came with family were usually on good terms anyway.
The wildest story from back then? A top female martial artist caught her husband cheating in the bedroom and actually bashed his head in.
She'd come running to me yelling he couldn't die.
I'd panicked pretty hard.
It wasn't long after I'd returned from the murim world, so I wasn't used to trauma cases yet...
"Guess it hits close to home. Kinda overlaps with my family."
"Huh? Your place..."
"Mom left when I was little. Dad dug in his heels, insisting no divorce, and it was brutal to watch."
Wait, what?
I'd been nodding along, but that startled me.
No family was free of drama, sure, but I'd known his home life was stuffy and messy in various ways.
Never dreamed it included something like this.
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